Rand Paul planning Round 2 against TSA

Sen. Rand Paul is not giving up his fight to get the government off the front lines of airport security.

The Kentucky Republican said in an interview that he plans to refile legislation that would drastically scale back the Transportation Security Administration’s reach by privatizing security screening operations at airports and creating a series of passenger protections.

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“I think we are going to,” Paul said when asked if he would take another crack at the oft-criticized agency. “We have two different bills, one to privatize the TSA and then we have another one which is a passenger bill of rights.”

As a policy, the TSA does not comment on proposed legislation. It declined to comment on Paul’s plans.

For Paul, TSA reform is personal. He drew viral media attention for resisting a TSA pat-down in 2012, which caused him to miss a speech at the March for Life rally. Following that incident, Paul introduced TSA privatization and flier bill of rights legislation last summer.

One bill would have ended the TSA screening operation and required airports to select companies from the private sector to do screening — a growing practice already used at a handful of airports, though one dealt a blow after Sacramento’s airport recently reversed its steps toward privatization. The other bill would have allowed some people to opt out of pat-downs, required distribution of a list of fliers’ rights and vastly expanded an expedited screening program for frequent fliers, a movement also embraced by new House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas).

Both of Paul’s bills died in the Commerce Committee last year after a cool reception from Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). Only the bill of rights legislation attracted a co-sponsor, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), though a companion bill in the House drew the support of eight Republicans.

Paul said his efforts in the new Congress would be “similar” to those two bills “unless we get some suggestions on changes.”

The senator also admitted it’s hard to effect the change he’d like to see in the upper chamber, though he suspects there are Democrats who are on the same page.

“I really think there is some bipartisan support for reforming the TSA,” he said. But he added, “It’s hard to move anything around here.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 3:25 p.m. on January 31, 2013.